Over the centuries, various processes have been used for curing meat to both preserve the meat to improve its flavor. Thus, various meats, including red meats, fowl and fish, have been dried in the sun, smoked, and bathed in various curing media.
Today, meats, particularly certain cuts of beef and pork, are cured by bathing in aqueous solutions and dispersions. Methods of bathing the meat include totally or partially submerging the meat in the curing medium, called a pickle solution or pickle, injecting the pickle into the meat by pumping the liquid through veins or arteries, or by pumping the pickle randomly into the meat through hollow needles pushed through the meat's surface. These methods may each be used alone or one may be used in conjunction with the others.
Pickle solutions are usually comprised primarily of sodium chloride to which sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, ascorbic or isoascorbic acids, various phosphate salts, such as sodium tripolyphosphate, alkali metal mono- and dibasic phosphates and the like may be added. Additionally, pickle solutions may contain components which are not normally considered to be ionic as are the above salts. These ingredients include sugar, spices, edible gums, protein hydrolyzates and smoke flavorants, such as distillates. All of the above pickle components may be referred to as pickling agents.
A smoked flavor has been found to be particularly advantageous in cured meats. Smoking meats in a smoke house requires many hours and a uniform product has been hard to achieve. U.S. Pat. No. 2,844,478 discloses a process for shortening the smoking time. According to this patent, a curing solution is first injected into the meat, the meat is then heated in an oven to a surface temperature of 200.degree.-250.degree. F. and an internal temperature of 115.degree.-130.degree. F., followed by precipitating smoke particles from the air by electrostatic precipitation, and then another heating to a surface temperature of 200.degree.-250.degree. F. The smoke particles are precipitated by passage through rows of ionizing electrodes which cause the smoke particles to become positively charged relative to the grounded meat, and thereby become attracted to the meat. U.S. Pat. No. 2,565,454 discloses a smoking process whereby the smoke particles in the air are positively charged by ionizing electrodes, and are then precipitated onto the grounded, relatively negatively charged, meat.